The Mountain Grove girls cross country program flexed its dominance of South Central Association (SCA) competition on Oct. 11 when they won first place in the SCA Cross Country Challenge held in Willow Springs.
The Lady Panthers held off Ava by 15 team points for the title.
In spite of being without Macey Penner, the Lady Panthers managed to have seven runners in the Top-25.
Lilly Hines led the way by taking sixth (24:41.83) while Abigail Fry was seventh (24:43.33). Haylee Proctor placed 12th (26:18.65), Taylor Hicks was 18th (30:49.86), Kimberlie Busalaki was 19th (31:59.31), Samantha Peterson finished 22nd (34:06.37) and Rileigh Holman was 23rd (36:07.11).
In the boys race, senior Andrew Norris won the SCA title with a first place time of 17:36.68.
Brayden Hensley also placed with a seventh place time of 19:22.84. Trenton Harker was 13th (20:40.94).
Other finishers include Owen Nelson (21:48.59), Ethan Norman (23:33.25), Kent Taylor (24:08.15) and Trent Horner (25:18.59).
As a team, the Panthers were third overall with 63 points.
On Oct. 14, Mountain Grove hosted an invitational in rainy weather.
The Panthers led the way by winning the team title by 19 points over Salem.
Norris once again took first place with a time of 20:24.79. Hensley was seventh (22:32.22), Harker placed eighth (22:32.35); Nelson was 12th (23:25.95); Taylor was 14th (24:05.18); and Charles Norman was 15th (24:05.18).
Other finishers include Horner (25:39.93) and Connor Long (26:45.84).
The Lady Panthers were also first place overall as they were led by champion Macey Penner.
Penner was first place overall with a time of 23:26.26.
The team had a one-two punch as Hines was second (26:24.80).
Fry was fifth (27:35.87), Proctor took seventh (29:49.64), Busalaki placed eighth (31:52.51); Peterson was 10th (35:29.32), Hicks took 11th (35:29.33), Holman took 12th (35:29.50) and Belle Bohenkamp came in 16th (43:14.88).
